Expert panel: National disaster alert system in disarray

[GreenPartyVoter]

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Emergency Alert System was once an unavoidable reminder of Cold War threats, an unearthly buzzing sound that interrupted TV and radio broadcasts and ended with the iconic proclamation "This is only a test."

These days, the tests are much shorter, less obtrusive -- and easy to miss. But the system, emblematic of the nation's emergency alert network, is a mess, says a group of leading state and local disaster response officials.

After the September 11 attacks, the officials formed the nonprofit Partnership for Public Warning. New threats demanded improved warning systems, they reasoned, networks using the latest technologies to save lives by speeding warnings to cell phones and evacuation maps to handheld computers.

Now, frustrated by what they consider the federal government's tortoiselike movement to overhaul warning systems, the partnership may be on the verge of disbanding.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/06/30/emergency.warning.ap/index.html

[donco6]

1. They sorta worked before people had cable.

Now most of the alerts - even weather warnings - can go unnoticed if you happen to be watching 6 Feet Under or Nip/Tuck and they don't cut in to tell you that a tornado is bearing down on your house (let alone a nuclear blast or anthrax cloud).

The EBS hasn't kept up with reality.